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View Full Version : Discus stopped eating, losing slime coat? White patch. Help.



Cringe
12-21-2018, 07:00 PM
Hi I have 10 discus in total in a 90 gallon tank. I bought 5 first from the same breeder and then realized that I needed to have more in the tank so after a month I went back to the same breeder and bought 5 more juveniles. They did great for the first couple of days but now all of a sudden they stopped eating and just lurk in the back of the tank now. I noticed that two or three of them have a white patch on their bodies and white stringy poop from one of them. It is looking really bad. They stopped eating and spend most of their time hiding in the back now. What is the cause and what medication should I be using? Any help would be appreciated thanks. I was only able to get a picture of one of them with the white marks on the skin, but the other two look even worse.

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
Added 5 new juveniles from the same breeder in about three weeks of getting my previous 5.

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
Clamped fins, white stringy poop, losing slime coat?(white patch).

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
General cure 2 days so far and it doesn't look like anything has changed.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
90 gallon (48x18x24)
10 discus from 3"-4.5"
19 cardinal tetra
4 sterbai corydoras


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% every other day


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Two months with a 1.5 inch sand substrate and some Manzanita driftwood


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don't age my water, no noticeable ph swing or gassing off. Fish look fine after water changes.

8. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp __83.2___

- ph __7.2___

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading _0___

- nitrate reading __0__

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water _100%___

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Yes 5 juvenile discus from the same breeder, about three weeks after I got my first 5.


10. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
Frozen beefheart, Tetra granules, Hikari Biogold, Brine shrimp, Frozen bloodworms


11. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
Third fish down from the top with a noticeable white patch

https://i.imgur.com/hsv5l4S.jpg

Tuterosso
12-22-2018, 05:17 AM
at start use salt for 7 day , i think its bacterial problem

pitdogg2
12-22-2018, 12:00 PM
I'd up the water changes to 75-80% daily and get most of that sand out. It more than likely is harboring a ton of rotting food and fecal matter. Go bare bottom for awhile and see if it helps. It will also give you an idea of the amount of waste build up or you're likely missing with the every other day water changes.

jeep
12-22-2018, 12:08 PM
I agree with the others. Also, if you are seeing white stringy feces, I would raise the temp to 90-93. General Cure is a weak med and will be very expensive to treat a 90g tank. I recommend picking up some Metro from Jehmco https://www.jehmco.com/html/medications.html

Cringe
12-22-2018, 02:48 PM
at start use salt for 7 day , i think its bacterial problem
Should I be using epsom salt? And at what dosage per gallon if I treat the whole tank?

Cringe
12-22-2018, 02:49 PM
I'd up the water changes to 75-80% daily and get most of that sand out. It more than likely is harboring a ton of rotting food and fecal matter. Go bare bottom for awhile and see if it helps. It will also give you an idea of the amount of waste build up or you're likely missing with the every other day water changes.
Okay I’ll start doing that today. Thanks

Cringe
12-22-2018, 02:53 PM
I agree with the others. Also, if you are seeing white stringy feces, I would raise the temp to 90-93. General Cure is a weak med and will be very expensive to treat a 90g tank. I recommend picking up some Metro from Jehmco https://www.jehmco.com/html/medications.html
I ordered some last night but it will take at least until next Saturday to get it shipped here. Should I transfer all ten of my discus into a 20 gallon tall hospital tank when I raise the temperature? I don’t know how well my cardinals and sterbais will do in 90 degree water. Also, if I do transfer them should I up the dose of general cure in the mean time, for example 30 gallon dosage for a 20 gallon tank? Thanks

jeep
12-22-2018, 03:48 PM
I ordered some last night but it will take at least until next Saturday to get it shipped here. Should I transfer all ten of my discus into a 20 gallon tall hospital tank when I raise the temperature? I don’t know how well my cardinals and sterbais will do in 90 degree water. Also, if I do transfer them should I up the dose of general cure in the mean time, for example 30 gallon dosage for a 20 gallon tank? Thanks

Good for you in ordering in advance!! I would not dose with General Cure before you receive the metro. Although it is a weaker form of metro, you risk building a tolerance to the medication. As far as the 20g tank, if they will fit then that is a great move. Many people resist moving into QT. It's also easier to raise the temp. Just make sure you do large % water changes and plenty of aeration. You can actually about double the recommended dose of metro when treating discus. It is easy on discus and won't hurt your bio filter. Use non-iodized salt, not epsome. In the beginning, I would dose 6-8 tbs in a 20g tank. As you perform water changes the salt will be removed, but keep treating the metro at full dosage for 10-14 days.

Brian

fljones3
12-22-2018, 04:20 PM
Okay I’ll start doing that today. Thanks

Be careful removing the sand as you might have gases released which will harm or kill the fish. You might remove the fish first if doing all at one time.

Agree with Jeep. I dosed a 20gal with 1/4 tsp daily when I needed a metro cure.

pitdogg2
12-22-2018, 09:28 PM
while it will be cheaper to dose the smaller tank, the cardinals and catfish should be fine at the higher temps. In the summer time my tanks would get to upper 90's like 95 and higher. I have no AC so they were ambient temperature for as long as the temps stayed that way. Never lost fish, but for sure do not want to be 82 one day 90 the next that would stress the snot out of them. and yes I'd lower the water level a little and stopped using air pumps years ago. I'd just let the filter exhaust move the surface more that usual. My water movement with my filters was about 1000 GPH so lots of current breaking the surface.

Cringe
12-23-2018, 08:23 PM
Good for you in ordering in advance!! I would not dose with General Cure before you receive the metro. Although it is a weaker form of metro, you risk building a tolerance to the medication. As far as the 20g tank, if they will fit then that is a great move. Many people resist moving into QT. It's also easier to raise the temp. Just make sure you do large % water changes and plenty of aeration. You can actually about double the recommended dose of metro when treating discus. It is easy on discus and won't hurt your bio filter. Use non-iodized salt, not epsome. In the beginning, I would dose 6-8 tbs in a 20g tank. As you perform water changes the salt will be removed, but keep treating the metro at full dosage for 10-14 days.

Brian

I put them into a 20 gallon tank with 4bs of aquarium salt and raised the temperature to 90 degrees yesterday. Today I did a 75% water change and after around half an hour all ten are floating and almost dead... not sure what went wrong. Tested the water and it’s identical to the tank water before the water change along with temperature being off by around 1 degree. I did notice a bunch of white centimeter long worms scattered across the bottom of the tank after my water change. Only source of that would be from the fish. Their gill plates have a discoloration along the edge.

Tuterosso
12-24-2018, 05:09 AM
100g on 100L non ionized salt